The Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival which started on August 3 will have a special screening of independent Bengali cinema. On August 4, Indrasis Acharya’s Niharika, Lubdhak Chatterjee’s Wispers Of Fire and Water, Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s Once Upon A Time In Calcutta and Anjan Dutt’s Chalchitra Ekhon will be screened. 

Independent filmmaking is said to be an upheaval journey in the Bengali independent industry. Besides the finance crunch, there have always been other logistics problems. In an interview with OTTplay, Indrasis elaborated, “When you have a limited budget you tell the ‘authorities’. They then decide on your team’s headcount. Moreover, the process is so limiting that if you are identified as a small-budget filmmaker, you are not even ‘allowed’ to use big, high-end cameras. The deal here is you will have to compromise with the quality if you want to reduce your production cost but you cannot easily make your own team to work with.”

The director also added that it is important to have a ‘robust environment for independent filmmakers’.

Meanwhile, the festival will see several events, including seminars and talks. The festival will take place at Hyderabad’s Prasad Preview Theatre and Shilparamam Manch. Besides film screenings, other cultural events including music, dance, etc will be staged at the venues. 

Read Also: Gulshan Devaiah breaks silence as Ulajh struggles at box office: 'Hit flop toh chalta rahta hai'